Invasive plants in urban settings: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of trends, gaps, and future implications

Abstract

• The topic of invasive plants in urban landscapes has received increasing attention from researchers, from 3 publications in 1996 to 73 publications in 2024, following a quadratic function with a coefficient R2 of 0.8863. • Environmental science is the discipline with the most contributions in the number of publications (42.54%). • The United States is the most collaborative country in publishing research on this topic. • Biological Invasions is the leading journal in the field (44 publications and 1372 citations). • Pyšek, P., Kowarik, I., and Richardson, D. M. are the most active authors in the field with 15 papers each. • The Stellenbosch University, South Africa, is the leading affiliation in invasive plants in urban settings, with 58 contributions. • This study identifies several gaps in the existing literature and offers practical recommendations and new avenues for future research on plant invasions in urban settings. Plant invasions pose a significant threat to the health and integrity of urban ecosystems, underscoring the need for further attention and investigation. This article aimed to provide a comprehensive systematic review of research progress on invasive plants in urban environments from 1996 to 2024, identify key research gaps, and suggest future implications in this field using bibliometric analysis techniques. This investigation relied on analyzing and visualizing 671 documents extracted from the Scopus database using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer tools. The results showed that the topic of invasive plants in urban landscapes has received increasing attention from researchers, with a notable increase from three publications in 1996 to 73 publications in 2024, following a quadratic function (R² = 0.8863). The United States of America is the most collaborative country in publishing research on this topic. Regarding sources, the journal Biological Invasions ranks first with 44 publications and 1372 citations. Pyšek, P., Kowarik, I., and Richardson, D. M. are the most active authors in the field with 15 papers each. Stellenbosch University, South Africa, is the leading affiliation in the field, with 58 documents. Finally, several deficiencies in the literature were identified, and some future implications and practical recommendations regarding plant invasions in urban environments were proposed. The findings provide a better understanding of our knowledge about invasive plants in urban settings and suggest new avenues for research and investigation that will contribute to more efficient invasion management and urban sustainability.